Application Review: DoggCatcher

One of the things that I was a little bummed about when I got my G1 was the lack of an easy to use tool on my laptop to add media. But I found a way around that, and I’m actually pretty happy with my music management now. But I felt some sort of void without my podcasts…and downloading them manually, uploading them to my G1, and finding some way of listening to them didn’t seem so hot. Luckily, I stumbled upon DoggCatcher.

As I opened the application up, I was a little confused. DoggCatcher included a few default podcasts and at the bottom of the screen displayed a few media controls. But, as is the case with most Android apps, just press the magical “Menu” button and all of the sudden the app has opened up to you. You have options to add a podcast (by searching, browsing a directory, or adding the RSS URL), update your podcasts, change preferences, and a few others.

Once I successfully added a podcast, which can be a little tricky but was generally straightforward, I went back to the main screen of DoggCatcher and saw my podcast pop up. From here, you can long press the podcast to delete it, update it, and view information about it. To view episodes and manually download new episodes, you can press the orange button with the RSS symbol. From this screen you can also play any of the downloaded podcasts with the included media control functionality.

One of the nicer features of DoggCatcher is its usage of notifications. It will alert you to new podcasts downloaded, errors in downloads, etc…so you can do other things while you’re downloading your podcast.

Now, for actual listening pleasure. Obviously you can listen to these podcasts with headphones (well, at least some of you), but I’ve found that listening to my podcasts in the morning or various times with the speaker is great. Now, I’m not saying play it on the subway or at work…nobody wants to listen to noisy speakerphones. But the speaker on the G1 puts the iPhone to shame (which is the reason I never used it. Ick!) and I’ve found that podcasts sound especially great with the speaker.

So…DoggCatcher, check. Apple following suit a few weeks later with things the G1 already had, check. Android, the G1, and it’s developers continue to amaze.